Hi guys and all the gorgeous ladies!
I'm so excited as I begin writing my experience because baby, this time it's Goa. Brace yourself, fellow travellers, for my unceasable blabbering. I got to visit the mini heaven in December 2015, hence, celebrating the best new year of my life till date.
Wait, I said heaven? Yes, a little party heaven XP
All the bookings regarding to and fro flights as well as the hotel stay was done through a travel agent. It is highly recommended that you make bookings prior to the vacation specifically if it falls in on-season and you're looking towards a good hotel stay. There are options for every range of budget and comfort. Also, before you start planning, the expenses almost triples itself in the months of November-February.
We landed at the Goa International Airport, also known as Dabolim Airport, and the only 1 in the state at sometime around early evening. The hotel accommodated our pick up and it took us an hours drive to reach Hotel Calangute Tower which lies in North Goa. Good rooms, nice service and average food is how I can sum it up. The costs for us were around and about Rs. 50000 per person but in my opinion, it can be cut down by the choice of flight/train and hotel. Also, even these two could be less upto 3 times depending upon the time when you plan to go. Apart from these 2 basic requirements that will hold almost 80-90% of your total tour expense, per person expense can be very easily and open handedly covered under Rs. 6000-10000 even in the peak months.
For my experience and opinion, South Goa has a lot of tourist sights to visit and is kind of a very open sky place but North Goa! almost everything is situated quite close to each other. If not, the roads are great both sides but in North, the surroundings are greener. In short, if you ask me, I'd recommend staying up in North Goa and visiting the South for a day or two. You can do vice-a-versa too, which should ultimately depend on whether you want to vacation seeing sights or partying :p
So back to the story, upon reaching and freshening we, a 5 ladies squad, went out to find some dinner and a walk to Baga beach which was just about a km away.
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Baga beach- a pretty beach with 'a lot' of pretty people :p 
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The best thing about this hotel was its location. It was like the mid point to all the places we wanted to head to and was on the main market road, giving us easy access to all the eating outlets. Though we mostly had our food in various places in the market accompanying Calangute beach which was also just at a 5 min scooter ride distance. Baga beach that night was not a very impressive experience and made me give it a thought as to how the other days were going to be, being on a vacation in an only girls group. There were drunk people in groups staring us and passing on comments. We ignored & walked further, to see hookers standing in a very organised kind of line. Haha. I mean they were standing on the beach, in extremely short and even more shimmery dresses, on regular gaps in a single line. Some others were busy targeting a few boys and taking them somewhere behind the dark spaces. Moral of the story- if you're in an only guy gang, try & avoid such situations because it seemed that those guys didn't really ask for it, they were just all drunk out of conscious limits and hence, targeted. However,
what happens in goa, stays in goa. (Ironically I'm writing it all to you
*facepalms*)
So, next day we rented scooters on a per day rent (own petrol) basis for our remaining stay. It generally should cost you roughly Rs. 200 for an activa and Rs. 300-400 for a bike but as I earlier mentioned, we went in their peak tourist season and the going rates were about Rs. 600-800 for the activa. Bargaining skills come helpful in the goan markets. Upon deciding to give Baga another chance, this time in the day, we rode there only to find the same situations again. Though there was no commenting now, maybe, because of crowd which never really leaves you even near to alone, anywhere there. So we quickly shifted to Calangute and never went Baga again. Rest of the stay went really chilled out.
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| Found a starfish :D
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There are various shacks cum restaurants on all the beaches that offers wooden beach chairs, already laid out in a line on the beach, for Rs. 100-200/ per chair (one time payment) for as much time as you wish to stay. There is a thin mattress over it and a towel. Once you settle there, a lot of bees will come hovering around, offering thread beading for your hair or body massages. Its totally your take if you want any of it or not but, trust me, it's as hard as I sound to tell them a '
no'.
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| Chairs lined up on Calangute beach
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On Calangute, as you walk a bit farther in the shacks line, you can enjoy a less crowded piece of the ocean with your squad while walking on the opposite side takes you to a counter where you pay for the water sports and further, where those water sports are executed.
There we enjoyed the para sailing and the banana boat. A few Other sports like motorboat sailing and motorboat rides were also available. They give you a good time and experience and for the best, they ensure your safety. There is a market accompanying almost every beach having shops for accessories, clothes, footwear, tattoos, massage parlours, food, etc. You can bargain everywhere apart from the massage parlours as most of the trustable ones have fixed rate packages pre-designed for you. The second famous thing after getting massages in Goa is getting a temporary tattoo on you. You've to select designs from the catalogue, or you can also show them one on your phone if you have a particular picture. We were 5 girls, the 4 others excluding me got it done and 1 of them got a severe skin allergy due to it. Although It is a rare case, you know your skin the best and the decision is yours.
If we exclude the area around Baga beach, there was not a single dull moment. You wear anything, you do anything... Nobody bats an eyelid ! Nobody gives you bad stares, no comments, nothing! And the point is that it's not because of less people. There are still a lot of people around you doing their own thing as well. The food in these markets is generally good at all the outlets. The only point to note is the coconut oil they widely use and fish oil smell that is always around if you have an always awakened sense of smell. Other beaches we visited were Vagator, Morjim, Arambol, Anjuna.
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| Vagator beach
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The final day before leaving for the airport, we surrendered the scooters and visited Panjim market, which was also accommodated by car by our hotel.
Liquor in Goa is a lot cheaper, especially those cute looking miniature bottles. Cashew fenny, good or bad, is one thing you must at least give 1 try as it is what is uniquely famous in Goa. Even If nothing else, every one would be aware of the cashew fenny for sure. Walking around Panjim, Picking up souvenirs and gifts for family and friends and having lunch at Sunil Shetty's hotel, Fidalgo
:p we sadly waited for our hotel's cab stuck in a jam to come take us to the airport as
dekhte hi dekhte it was already time to be back home.
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| a window shot from the plane while taking off from Goa
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*sadness overload*
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